This is the second album by Anna von Hausswolff, following her debut, Singing from the grave from 2010. On the debut her main instrument was piano, for this released she has changed it to church organ! Specifically the organ in Annedalskyrkan, the same place that launched her career in 2009 during her performance at the Way Out West festival.

A church organ is a beast of an instrument, and Anna is the beauty controlling the beast. The album is very powerful, beautiful and cinematic. The church organ works very well as the foundation for her sad and beautiful pop songs.

Immediate favorites are Mountains crave and Liturgy of light. This is a very cool album and Anna has created a universe of her own where there is no genres or sound defining her art. Its just really powerful and beautiful music that demands attention. I really look forward to see her live at the Music and Arts festival in Stockholm on August 5th.

A1 Microchipleague
A2 Satellite
A3 Stranger
A4 New York
B1 Communicate (Original Razormaid mix)
B2 Power Plant
B3 You Know
B4 Short Wave Symphony

Micro Chip Leaue (MCL) was created by the same people that was behind the German group Moskwa TV, Alexander Henninger and Andreas Tomalla. Code numbers was released in 1987 and still sounds amazing. It' sounds as it has been influenced by classic electronic influences like Kraftwerk, and with newer influences from the early techno scene in Detroit.

Andreas Tomalla a.k.a. Talla 2XLC was to become very important and influential for electronic dance music in Europe. In 1984 he had started the Technoclub in Frankfurt, and it's quite possible that he coined the term Techno a couple of years before Juan Atkins started to use it to describe the music coming out of Detroit.

Andreas was involved in creating the label Techno drome international in 1987 and released projekts like Robotico Rejekto and Bigod 20. In 1989 he started the label Zoth Ommog wich was hugely important for the EBM- and industrial scene.

Talla 2XCL is still DJ-ing, remixing and making electronic dance music.

Code numbers is a very good album with lots of cool sounding tracks. My favorites are Microchipleague, Satellite and the hit single New York. Lots of hard electronics with strong kicks and huge snares. A classic.

A  J.R. Robot (Vocal)
B  J.R. Robot (Instrumental)

This is a italo disco recording from 1984. A bit rare and sought after, but very typical in it's structure. Cheezy production with octave bass, fat synth chords and a disco beat. The robot voice is not done with a vocoder, but some kind of other odd effect that makes the voice sound really strange. The song is more charming then good, but the base line is really catchy and works quite well for the dance floor. I prefer the instrumental since the voice effect is getting a bit annoying after a little while.

The writers of this track is Alessandro Novaga, Nino Lelli and Fabio Sbaragli. Sbaragli is also the producer. Novaga and Sbaragli has also been involved in remixing swedish group Fake on the track Frogs in spain and been involved with groups Sun-La-Chan and Camaro's Gang.

A1  Humanoids from the deep
A2  The tazer
B1  Trapped in the playground
B2  Meat beat

This is a bit different. San Francisco punk band Dead Kennedys had just finished their first european tour in England in 1980. Singer Jello Biafra and guitarist East Bay Ray meet up with Adrian Borland (The Sound), Christian Lunch and Morgan Fisher in Fishers apartment in London.

During a drunken night they managed to record this improvised, eerie piece of music in only 4 hours. The music consists of drum machines, monotone base lines, sound effects from synths and electric guitar. On top of this we have Biafras (improvised?) spoken world. Not for the dance floor, but the perfect soundtrack to feverish nightmares.

A  You and me
B  You and me (Instrumental)

Another classic New beat recording from Kaos Dance Records. This one is produced by the founders of the label, Khan and Inger. It's co written with Nikkie Van Lierop a.k.a. Jade 4U. She is also one of the original members of Lords of Acid, one of few bands that survived beyond the scene in Belgium.

You and me is very acid with a very effective baseline. It's all about sex and drugs... and dance. Maybee a bit to extreme acid sounding for most people, but with a very danceable groove.

Found my copy through Discogs and payed 14 €.

A1  Liquid silver
A2  Kick
A3  Outside
A4  Wired
B1  Running red
B2  There will be blood
B3  Damage
B4  Like ice

Wow! Knocked out and feeling great. First came the awesome Guilt Trip album from Complete Control Productions and now this. The new album Restart from The Pain Machinery shows that this label has some of swedens best electronic music talents under it's roof. I am of course extra happy 'bout the decision to also make this a ltd vinyl release.

Really nice, simple cover and translucent blue vinyl makes this record look very good. But more important, it sounds fantastic. This is like the perfect merge of the soundscapes I love the most. It's a blend of british and belgian ebm and oldschool synth with a dash of acid and Detroit techno thrown in the mix. They even have the good taste to collaborate with on of my recent favorite artists Robert Lane from //Tense// on the track There will be blood.

Favorite tracks are Running red, Kick and Outside. But all tracks on this release are great. Now I just wish that they will pay Göteborg a visit really soon.